Mental wanderings of a common man. Politics of a right-leaning nature, news, techie talk... the usual.

Saturday, December 10, 2005

Open letter to Gov. Barbour of MS re: Cory Maye case

Via Instapundit I'd like to link to Silent Running and an open letter to Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi over the Cory Maye case. If you haven't heard already, here's the meat of the situation taken from the letter:

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Certain facts about the case are not in dispute. Prior to the events of December 26, 2001, Mr. Maye had no criminal record. On December 26, 2001, Cory Maye shot a police officer carrying out a search warrant. However, the warrant being served was not for Mr. Maye, nor for his residence. The execution of the warrant involved a ‘no-knock’ entry, late at night. Mr. Maye relinquished his weapon, and ceased resisting when it became obvious that the people that burst into his home were law enforcement officers.

Subsequently, Mr. Maye was charged with capital murder, for killing a police officer in the line of duty. A trial was held in Prentiss Mississippi, a jury convicted Mr. Maye, and sentenced him to death.

Although that description seems pretty cut and dried, there are a number of issues about this case that raise profound concerns about Mr. Maye’s conviction, and most certainly, the imposition of the death penalty. These issues raise the question of why Mr. Maye was even indicted and charged to begin with. These issues create the sense that the entire situation is one of a terrible tragedy (the death of the police officer), grossly compounded by a heinous miscarriage of justice.

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According to the particulars of the case, Maye was asleep in his house which was 1 side of a duplex. The police were executing a warrant on the other side of the duplex. The police got confused, apparently, as to which door was which and did a no-knock entry on Maye's home. The officers burst in the door, startling awake Maye who had his 18-month-old daughter there in the room with him. Faced with a heavily armed man who had busted down the door and who did not identify himself, Maye opened fire with his own weapon and killed the officer.

The letter is a good one and I suggest you read it. The fact the Maye was even indicted, let alone convicted and then sentenced to death, is astounding. I'm curious to know where all the Hollywood types are who are loudly advocating for the release of Tookie, who absolutely murdered at least 4 people in 2 separate incidents. Shouldn't they be all over this one? Why is it that I'm only seeing a lot of coverage on this over here on the right-hand side of the 'sphere?